Thief of Damascus

Everything is splendid in this sumptuous oriental adventure, built on all kinds of loose ends of Arabian nights with the action located in Persia in the 7th century. Paul Henreid is the hero, the general who gets defeated and dishonoured but who works his way back in glory, surrounded by three wonderful oriental ladies. There is a great musical score by John Leipold which underlines the extravagant phantasmagoria character, but the script is the best of all, brilliantly conceived with exquisite dialog all the way spiced with wonderful strokes of good and witty humour, and I don't think I have ever seen Paul Henreid this good. Lon Chaney Jr plays the joker Sinbad with Aladdin for a helpmate, it's all like a paraphrase of Michael Powell's "The Thief of Bagdad" two years earlier, and everything here reminds you of Michael Powell and his magic. It's the same vein, not equally sophisticated, but well enough to stand up for a good second. This film is a joy all through, and you will gladly return to it one day.

1952's "Thief of Damascus" was a Columbia potboiler from producer Sam Katzman, scripted tongue in cheek with quotable lines aplenty. Evil conqueror Khalid (John Sutton) demands the arrest of his best general, Abu Amdar (Paul Henreid), simply for negotiating a treaty of surrender from the Sultan of Damascus, without his consent. With sword fights carefully sped up for the benefit of Henreid's stuntman, we get almost every character associated with the Arabian Nights- Robert Clary as Aladdin (minus lamp), Philip Van Zandt as Ali Baba, Jeff Donnell as the fetching Sheherazade, and Lon Chaney as Sinbad. Add Elena Verdugo as Neela and Helen Gilbert as Princess Zafir, all the girls provide quite a visual treat in color, but in all fairness, Howard Hughes didn't scrimp on the pulchritude when he cast so many beautiful wannabe starlets in his own "Son of Sinbad," casting Vincent Price as Omar Khayyam! (he later confided that it was indeed a very happy set). Speaking of Sinbad, 45 year old Lon Chaney looks both strong and healthy, hugely enjoying his comic sparring with Robert Clary, later on HOGAN'S HEROES, and it's nice to see him again alongside luscious Elena Verdugo, his old co-star from "House of Frankenstein" and "The Frozen Ghost" (her hair almost as long as Patricia Morison's). 'Miss Jeff Donnell,' as she was billed opposite Boris Karloff in her second film, 1942's "The Boogie Man Will Get You," was a longtime mainstay at Columbia, appearing in "The Power of the Whistler," "The Phantom Thief" (Boston Blackie), and "The Unknown" (I LOVE A MYSTERY); still only 29, she's as sexy a Sheherazade as any man could ask for. Too bad Khalid failed to ask.

634 A. D.:Though General Amdar is able to win the Siege of Damascus for his ruler Khalid, he is made an enemy of the State. Amdar escapes and steals a scimitar made of Damascus steel. He leads an alliance of Sinbad without his ship, Aladdin without his lamp, Sheherazade, and Ali Baba and his 40 thieves to depose Khalid and win the heart of Princess Zafir.

He might not look like Jon Hall, but Paul Henreid is good as the hero, energetically waving off the bad guys with his scimitar and wooing the princess who thinks he's "faking" his clash with the villain of the piece - Khalid. You know the score, it's typical Arabian adventure, and has all the Arabian Nights characters like Sinbad and Aladdin. A bit hokey, fast-paced and action-packed. Enough to keep you watching, especially if you're fan of these kind of films. I particularly liked Jeff Donnell as Sheherazade - loved her quips.

Both Universal and Columbia had Arabian Nights sets on their lots built for a couple of big budget epics they had done in the Forties, Universal for Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Columbia for A Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Because of those sets and the cost to construct them, the movie-going public was treated every year to at least one exotic Middle East tale of adventure.

The cycle at Columbia was starting to run down though with Thief of Damascus. Someone over at Columbia got the bright idea to take as many of the fabled characters from the Arabian Nights and put them into one film.

The plot such as it is involves Paul Henreid as the number one general of John Sutton as Khalid the Conqueror making a way too generous treaty with the sultan of Damascus. Since they don't call him the Conqueror for nothing, Sutton decides to take charge in the usual fashion.

Before the end of the film, Aladdin, Sinbad, Scherezade, and Ali Baba and those forty thieves make their appearance and bring about a general righting of wrongs.

This was supposed to be tongue in cheek, but sad to say the satire fell kind of flat. Besides Henreid and Sutton others who could barely keep a straight face are Elena Verdugo, Lon Chaney, Jr., Robert Clary, Philip Van Zandt, Helen Gilbert, and Jeff Donnell as a puffy cheeked Scherezade who looks like she has the mumps.

The idea was interesting, but it fell short of the mark.

This very conventional oriental tale takes many characters from "the thousand and one nights " who ,with the exception of Ali Baba whose cave ,should we believe him,is used for the last time ,are not given a single chance to shine (to show their skills): Aladdin talks about his lamp,but this magical thing is no help for the oppressed; Simbad is not a sailor and has no monster to fight against;had Sheherazade been so devoid of imagination,she would not have hold her master's attention for thousand and one nights . Neela even hints at Delilah ,a biblical character ,who does not appear ,all the same.

This story is too derivative ,and there are many directors who did more exciting movies with "the thousand and one nights" inexhaustible material.